Lackland's ‘culture' blamed for scandal

Updated 11:32 pm, Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News

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U.S. Congresswomen, members of the House Armed Services Committee, from left, Loretta Sanchez, D-California, Jackie Speier, D-California and Susan Davis, D-California hold a press conference outside Lackland Air Force Base, Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2012. The committee members met with personnel at the base to investigate the ongoing sex scandal.

Three California congresswomen visiting San Antonio on Tuesday said an Air Force sex scandal is rooted in a culture that tolerates predators while punishing whistle-blowers.

Reps. Susan Davis, Loretta Sanchez and Jackie Speier, all Democrats, told reporters after a tour of Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland that troops here were aware of misconduct between instructors and trainees, but fear of reprisal kept them silent.

“Reporting this issue was not acceptable at Lackland. When you had only one individual who came forward to file a complaint when there were 44 victims, it was not being taken seriously,” Speier said.

“People knew it was going on,” Sanchez said, adding that they felt like “part of a family of buddies” they didn't want to turn in. “You go through a series of things: denial, ‘Maybe I didn't see it quite right,' ‘Maybe I didn't hear it quite right.'”

“You know, that's human nature to not want to believe that these things are going on. And then to break that bond, to break that family bond, to break that and to say it's so bad I have to go and tell somebody about it.”

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The scandal goes back to at least 2008 and has grown to nearly four dozen victims. Some observers have raised the issue of culture playing a role in the scandal, explaining it's hard to understand how so many trainers on one base could have broken the rules without being reported.

Two instructors had illicit sexual relationships with 10 women each, while two other instructors testified that they learned of misconduct but hesitated to report it. One testified that he said nothing for more than a month after Staff Sgt. Craig LeBlanc bragged to him about having sex with a basic trainee.

LeBlanc goes on trial Tuesday.

“The military training instructors who have blown the whistle felt that it had been going on for some time and that it had been accepted,” Speier said.

The Air Force said Tuesday that 19 instructors have been or are being investigated for possible involvement with 44 women. That is up slightly from a week ago.

Of those women, 11 are considered sexual assault victims while 24 are considered victims of unprofessional relationships involving sexual or other inappropriate contact. Nine are considered to have been involved in unprofessional relationships that did not have sexual contact.

The lawmakers spent the day at Lackland, meeting with base leaders, investigators, training instructors, legal advocates and trainees. They found signs of progress but said much more had to be done.

In a teleconference, several victims told the committee members stories of illicit sexual encounters. The three congresswomen also met with whistleblowers and praised Air Force leaders for providing access to airmen.

They started the day by having breakfast with Maj. Gen. Leonard Patrick, whose Biloxi, Miss.-based command oversees Lackland, along with the vice commander of the 37th Training Wing.

The Air Force did not return calls for comment on the visit, but Speier said she believed the officials she met with have decided that the scandal was largely due to cultural woes.

“I don't know if they said it in so many words. I think it was clear by their conversations that they knew they have a problem here,” she said.

“I don't know if they used the word culture. We probably used the word culture,” Speier added. “There appeared to be a palpable sense of urgency to address this issue and I think it starts at the top. I think Secretary (of Defense Leon) Panetta is sending down edicts from on high.”

Davis, the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Military Personnel, said: “Enough people were very aware of what was going on, and now that there have been a number of measures put into place then that begins a very long period of time where the environment hopefully will change and that it will be an unacceptable environment to have predators loose.”